help my clam

[firedog]

Received a couple of crocea clams from online, and now one of them is a little slow to respond to touch, keeps its mantle retracted, and there is a hole in his hinge (byssal muscle?). I think it may be too late for him, as I can see through his gill opening to the substrate below him. Anyone have any ideas?
It is a 75 gal tank, amm/trites/trates are all zero, calcium in the high 400's. ph is 8.2.
Did a worm get him? Maybe he just tore his muscle?

 

[farslayer]

See any snails on him? Pyramid snails (I believe is what they're called) will bore through them and eat them for lunch. Check all of your clams as I'd hate to see you lose them all to something like that.

 

[fishieness]

most bristle worms will only eat clams after they are dead. and if any coral eating ones in there, youd be able to tell.
it could be a parasite as mentioned above. how long have you had the clams? what lighting do you have? how old is your tank?

 

[firedog]

Tank is about 2 months old, had the derasa about a month, the croceas only a couple of days.

 

[lamaface]

You can't really do much for it... Just make sure its not close to any aggresive corals, out of too much current and has alot of light. I had a clam which also had a nice big hole through that tissue and i just left it in a nice spot and it recovered. What lighting do you have? I personally think that your tank is too young for clams... too late now though... i wish you the best of luck.

 

[angelspot]

I have to agree a tank should be well established before adding a clam.
I waited 5 years for a derasa with 75 gal tank 410 watts of vho and doing very well.

 

[fishieness]

yeah, way too younge.

 

[firedog]

450 watts PC. I am probably going to switch to MH in a few months. I have a clam in a nano cube that seems to be doing well. I guess I am glad to hear that it can possibly recover. I have never read anywhere before about a tank needing to be aged before adding clams. But thanks for the help. I hope it does well.

 

[farslayer]

PC is not enough regardless of watts, you have to have MH for the clams. And don't worry about the age of the tank, a friend of mine has six clams in a tank from the time it was only three months old. His tank is now about two years old and he has not lost any of them. His water parameters were excellent and he had MH bulbs for the clams. I'd worry more about the lighting than the age of the tank.

 

[fishieness]

i think water quality and maturity matters more. you can only get this from a mature tank. lighting is definatly very very important. and you need a lot regaurdless. but you should definatly worry about the age of your tank. your friend just happens to be very very very lucky. and that isnt something that happens often in this hobby.

 

[farslayer]

In my experience, there is no such thing as luck. Sorry, couldn't help the Star Wars reference But I do doubt that keeping six clams alive for two years is luck. What does it mean to have a mature tank? In my opinion, it is a tank which has stable readings in the right range. If you obtain this after three months, why not keep clams if your lighting can support them and your water chemistry is excellent? Light is much more important to a clam as this is what it feeds on. I would think it could tolerate 5ppm of nitrate sooner than it could live off of florescent lights. Point being that they are delicate animals and need excellent water, but I don't think the age of the tank is relevant. What about a tank which is two years old and has 20ppm of nitrate? By the definition of the age of a tank, this one would be more likely to house a tank. Age is only a number as is said, if it is stable and in good range, it should be fine.

 

[fishieness]

there are more things to reef chemistry than your nitrate levels. and besides, clams actualy feed on nitrates. the zooxanthellae in them does, as it does in all corals, but clams have 10 times more per square inch. and yes, lighting is important, i wasnt saying it wasnt, but im saying that it is more important to have perfect water for them then it does to have a 250 watt DE HQII over a 29 gallon tank. and yes, it is definatly luck. it is luck that he happened to get clams that were more tolerable to new tanks. it was luck that the clams were able to survive until his tank was more mature. age is definatly not just a number. there are more things to having a stable tank than haveing no nitrates, nitrites, or amonia. try for yourself. you can put a halide over a little 10 gallon tank. cycle it, 5 days after it is done cycleing put in a clam and an anenome, they wont last all too long in almost all instances.

 

[farslayer]

I'm not aware of clams feeding on nitrates save for the cleaners, but they do not feed on light. If that is the case then why would they do poorly in tanks with high levels? I wouldn't hesitate to put a clam into a ten gallon tank after it has cycled and all levels show to be stable over a good period of time. In fact I'm planning on picking up a nano with a 70W MH in it for my son's room and it will certainly have several clams in it with a wrasse and maybe some Xenia. After it has cycled I will test the water daily for about a month after adding some rock and the wrasse. After it has proven to be stable I will add a clam or two.

 

[fishieness]

when i say feed on nitrates, im not talking about them doing well in tanks with large levels of nitrates. all corals need nitrates. the reason a lot of the time why people have 0 is not because there are 0 in the tank. if that were the case, thenthere would be no amonia either when the line gets followed backwards which we know amonia is being produced. the nitrates is absorbed by any types of algae as well as the zoo located inside the corals. it is rumored that in some clam farms, people have peed in the water to raise the nitrates. this is not saying that 0 nitrates are bad, im just saying there is more needed to be stable for a clam to survive. and good luck with a clam after a month. IMO, thats pushing yoru luck a lot. dont get me wrong, id love to see you do it, but it rarely ever happens. search around and do some more research on reef chemistry. youll see what i mean.

 

[firedog]

Seems I have stirred the pot. I have read that there is a long standing debate about PCs vs MH over clams. I have a clam that I have kept for about 6 months now under PCs and it appears to be doing well. I put it in the tank after about a month. Maybe I am lucky. Some people have told me that later on the clam will need better lighting. I did place the clam half way up the tank so I think perhaps that helped too. Time will tell.

 

[murph145]

id say u wouold need MH for any clams with a purple blue color such as maximas and croceas
PC might substain them for a lil while but they will slowly start to perish i can almost guarantee that over time they will slowly starve and die
i had aquired a crocea which had a hole in it too and its mantle was pale and missing at the ends....
he was at the lfs under some vho at the bttom of the tank
hes in my tank about 24" below one of my 250DE MH's and he has recovered grown his full mantle back and has more color than ever before with lots of new growth in about 3 months of time
clams are easy given u have good water and lighting
both of my croceas are doing great and i will watch them slowly starve at the LFS when they are under vho if they keep them there longer than 2 weeks they are goners